Military History Anniversaries 15 Mar thru 15 Apr
Significant events in U.S. Military History for the next 30 days are:
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Mar 15 1781 – American Revolution: Battle of Guilford Court House, SC 1,900 British troops
under General Charles Cornwallis defeat an American force numbering 4,400. Casualties and
losses: US 1,272 - GB 538.
Mar 15 1916 – President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.–
Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
Mar 15 1943 – WW2: USS Triton (SS–201) sunk either by Japanese destroyer Satsuki or
submarine chaser Ch 24 north of Admiralty Islands. 74 killed.
Mar 15 1944 – WW2: Battle of Monte Cassino - Cassino, Italy is destroyed by Allied bombing.
Mar 15 1989 – VA elevated to a Cabinet–level agency under Public Law 100–527.
Mar 16 1802 – The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate West Point
Academy.
Mar 16 1935 – Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Versailles Treaty.
Mar 16 1942 – WW2: The first V–2 rocket test launch. It explodes at liftoff.
Mar 16 1945 – WW2: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance
persist. Casualties and losses: US 26,038 - JP 22,060
Mar 16 1968 – Vietnam: In the My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers:
men, women, and children are killed by American troops.
Mar 17 1776 – American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, Massachusetts.
Mar 17 1942 – WW2: Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lviv Ghetto (western Ukraine) are
gassed at the Belzec death camp (eastern Poland).
Mar 17 1945 – WW2: The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany collapses, ten days after its
capture.
Mar 17 1973 – Vietnam: First POWs are released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North
Vietnam.
Mar 18 1945 – WW2: 1,250 U.S. bombers attack Berlin.
Mar 19 1865 – Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days
later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina. Casualties and losses:
US 1,527 - CSA 2,606
Mar 19 1941 – WW2: The 99th Pursuit Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the first
all–black unit of the Army Air Corp, is activated.
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Mar 19 1945 – WW2: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military
installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be
destroyed.
Mar 19 1945 – WW2: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military
installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be
destroyed.
Mar 19 1945 – WW2: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin,
killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own
power.
Mar 19 2002 – Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500
Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities.
Mar 19 2003 – Iraq: United States President George W. Bush orders the start of war against Iraq.
Mar 20 1922 – The USS Langley (CV–1) is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft
carrier.
Mar 20 1942 – Holocaust: in Rohatyn, western Ukraine, the German SS murder 3,000 Jews,
including 600 children, annihilating 70% of Rohatyn's Jewish ghetto.
Mar 20 1942 – WW II: General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his
famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: "I came out of Bataan and I
shall return".
Mar 20 1945 – WW2: USS Kete (SS–369) missing. Most likely sunk by a mine or a Japanese
submarine (perhaps RO 41) east of Okinawa. 87 killed
Mar 20 1952 – The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.
Mar 20 1969 – Vietnam: U.S president Nixon proclaims he will end Vietnam war in 1970.
Mar 20 2003 – Iraq: Invasion of Iraq by American and British led coalition begins without United
Nations support and in defiance of world opinion.
Mar 21 1918 – WWI: The Germans launch the ‘Michael’ offensive [First Battle of the Somme].
Mar 21 1943 – WW2: Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
Mar 21 1945 – WW2: 1st Japanese flying bombs (ochas) attack Okinawa.
Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka
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Mar 21 1971 – Vietnam: Two U.S. platoons in Vietnam refuse their orders to advance.
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Mar 22 1942 – WW2: Heavy German assault on Malta.
Mar 22 1945 – WW2: U.S. 3rd Army crosses Rhine at Nierstein.
Mar 22 1965 – Vietnam: U.S. confirms its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong.
Mar 23 1775 – Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his speech "Give me Liberty, or give
me Death!" at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia.
Mar 23 1862 – Civil War: The First Battle of Kernstown, Virginia, marks the start of Stonewall
Jackson's Valley Campaign. Though a Confederate defeat, the engagement distracts Federal
efforts to capture Richmond. Casualties and losses: US 500 - CSA 718
Mar 23 1942 – WW2: Japanese forces occupy Andaman Islands in Indian Ocean.
Mar 23 1942 – WW2: U.S. move native–born of Japanese ancestry into detention centers.
Mar 23 1945 – WW2: Largest operation in Pacific war, 1,500 US Navy ships bomb Okinawa.
Mar 23 1951 – Korea: U.S. paratroopers descend from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in
Korea.
C-119 in flight
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Mar 23 1994 – A United States Air Force (USAF) F–16 aircraft collides with a USAF C–130 at
Pope Air Force Base and then crashes, killing 24 United States Army soldiers on the ground. This
later became known as the Green Ramp disaster.
Mar 23 2003 – Iraq War: In Nasiriyah, 11 soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company as well as
18 U.S. Marines are killed during the first major conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 654 Iraqi
combatants are also killed.
Mar 24 1944 – WW2: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners
begin breaking out of Stalag Luft I.
Mar 25 1865 – Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces temporarily capture Fort Stedman from
the Union.
Mar 25 1915 – 1st submarine disaster. USS F–4 (SS–23) sunk after a battery explosion off
Honolulu, Hawaii. 21 died
Mar 25 1953 – Korean War: The USS Missouri fires on targets at Kojo, North Korea, the last
time her guns fire until the Persian Gulf War of 1992.
Mar 25 1971 – Vietnam: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam abandon an attempt to cut off the
Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos.
Mar 25 1975 – Vietnam: The former imperial capital of Hue fell to North Vietnamese troops
along with the entire Thua Thien Province.
Mar 26 1944 – USS Tullibee (SS–284) accidentally sunk by circular run of own torpedo off Palau
Islands. 79 died
Mar 26 1945 – WW2: Kamikazes attack U.S. battle fleet near Kerama Retto.
Mar 26 1945 – WW2: U.S. 7th Army crosses Rhine at Worms Germany.
Mar 26 1970 – 500th nuclear explosion announced by the U.S. since 1945.
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Mar 27 1794 – The U.S. establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of 6 frigates.
Mar 27 1836 – Texas Revolution: Goliad massacre – Antonio López de Santa Anna orders the
Mexican army to kill about 400 Texas POWs at Goliad, Texas.
Mar 27 1846 – Mexican–American War: Siege of Fort Texas.
Mar 27 1886 – Apache Wars: Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrenders to the U.S. Army,
ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.
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Mar 27 1943 – World War II: Battle of the Komandorski Islands - In the Aleutian Islands the
battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a
garrison at Kiska.
Mar 27 1945 – WW2: Gen Eisenhower declares German defenses on Western Front broken.
Mar 27 1945 – WW2: Iwo Jima occupied, after 22,000 Japanese & 6,000 US killed.
Mar 27 1945 – WW2: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways
begins.
Mar 27 1952 Korea: Elements of the U.S. Eighth Army reach the 38th parallel.
Mar 271814 – War of 1812: In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson
defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
Mar 28 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass – in New Mexico, Union forces stop
the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle began on March 26. Casualties and
losses: US 125 - CSA 123
Mar 28 1945 – WW2: Germany launches the last of its V–2 rockets against England.
Peenemünde Museum replica of V-2
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Mar 28 1945 – WW2: USS Trigger (SS–237) sunk by Japanese patrol vessel Mikura, Coast
Defense Vessel No.33,and Coast Defense Vessel No. 59 in the Nansei Soto. 89 killed.
Mar 28 1946 – Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal
Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
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Mar 29 1847 – Mexican-American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take
Veracruz after a siege.
Mar 29 1865 – Civil War: Federal forces under Major General Philip Sheridan move to flank
Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee as the Appomattox Campaign begins.
Mar 29 1911 – The M1911 .45 ACP pistol becomes the official U.S. Army side arm.
Mar 29 1944 – WW2: Allied bombing raid on Nuremberg. Along the English eastern coast 795
aircraft are dispatched, including 572 Lancasters, 214 Halifaxes and 9 Mosquitoes. The bombers
meet resistance at the coasts of Belgium and the Netherlands from German fighters. In total, 95
bombers are lost, making it the largest Bomber Command loss of World War II.
Mar 29 1951 – Korea: The Chinese reject Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s offer for a truce in Korea.
Mar 29 1971 – Vietnam: My Lai massacre. Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of
premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Mar 29 1973 – Vietnam: Last U.S. combat soldiers leave, 9 yrs after Tonkin Resolution.
Mar 30 1944 – WW2: The U.S. fleet attacks Palau, near the Philippines.
Mar 30 1972 – Vietnam: The Easter Offensive begins with Hanoi launching its heaviest attack in
four years, crossing into the DMZ.
Mar 31 1941 – WW2: Germany begins a counter offensive in Africa.
Mar 31 1965 – Vietnam: U.S. ordered the 1st combat troops to Vietnam.
Apr 01 1745: French & Indian War: A fleet consisting of 19 transport ships escorted by 13
armed merchant vessels is carrying a total of 4,220 American colonial militiamen toward Cape
Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The goal is the capture of Louisbourg, the largest fort in North
America. It was built and garrisoned by the French to protect the entrance to the St. Lawrence
River and French Canada.
Apr 01 1865 – Civil War: Battle of Five Forks – In Siege of Petersburg, Confederate General
Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive. Casualties and losses: US 830 - CSA 2,950
Apr 01 1893 – The rank of Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy is established.
Apr 01 1942 – WW2: Rationing - Anyone wishing to purchase a new toothpaste tube, then made
from metal, had to turn in an empty one.
Apr 01 1945 – WW2: Operation Iceberg – United States troops land on Okinawa in the last
campaign of the war.
Apr 01 1948 – Cold War: Berlin Airlift – Military forces, under direction of the Soviet–controlled
government in East Germany, set–up a land blockade of West Berlin.
Berliners watch a C-54 Skymaster land at Tempelhof Airport, 1948
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Apr 01 1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air
Force Academy in Colorado.
Apr 02 1865 – Civil War: The 9 month Siege of Petersburg is broken – Union troops capture the
trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.
Casualties and losses: US 42,000 - CSA 28,000
Apr 02 1865 – Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the
Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
Apr 02 1917 – WWI: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of
war on Germany.
Apr 02 1972 – Vietnam: The Easter Offensive begins – North Vietnamese soldiers of the 304th
Division take the northern half of Quang Tri Province.
Apr 03 1865 – Civil War: Union forces occupy the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
Apr 03 1942 – WW2: The Japanese begin their all–out assault on the U.S. and Filipino troops at
Bataan.
Apr 03 1943 – WW2: USS Pickerel (SS–177) sunk by Japanese minelayer Shirakami and
auxiliary subchaser Bunzan Maru off northern Honshu, Japan. 74 killed
Apr 03 1945 – WW2: US 1st Army conquers Hofgeismar, Germany
Apr 03 1946 – Post WW2: Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines
for leading the Bataan Death March. He maintained that he had no knowledge of atrocities until
after they had occurred.
Apr 04 1917 – WWI: The U.S. Senate votes 90–6 to enter World War I on the Allied side.
Apr 04 1918 – WWI: The Battle of the Somme ends.
Apr 04 1945 – WW2: American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany. Also
Kassel is captured after a 4 day struggle with the German Army.
Apr 04 1975 – Vietnam: Operation Baby Lift – A United States Air Force C–5A Galaxy crashes
near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, transporting orphans – 172 die.
Apr 05 1862 – Civil War: The Battle of Yorktown begins.
Apr 05 1943 – WW2: American bomber aircraft accidentally cause more than 900 civilian deaths,
including 209 children, and 1300 wounded among the civilian population of the Belgian town of
Mortsel. The target is the Erla factory one kilometer from the residential area hit.
Apr 05 1951 – Cold War: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for performing
espionage for the Soviet Union.
Apr 05 1968 – Vietnam: Operation Pegasus was launched by the 1st Air Cavalry Division to
relieve the marines at Khe Sanh.
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Apr 06 1862 – Civil War: The 2 day Battle of Shiloh begins – in Tennessee, forces under Union
General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston.
Casualties and losses: US 13,047 - CSA 10,699.
Apr 06 1865 – Civil War: The Battle of Sayler's Creek – Confederate General Robert E. Lee's
Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.
Casualties and losses: US 1,148 - CSA 7,700.
Apr 06 1866 – Post Civil War: The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic
organization composed of Union veterans of the American Civil War, is founded. It lasts until
1956.
GAR Parade during the 1914 Encampment in Detroit, Michigan
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Apr 06 1917 – WWI: The United States declares war on Germany.
Apr 06 1945 – WW2: the Battle of Slater's Knoll on Bougainville comes to an end. Casualties
and losses: AUS 189 - JP 1,624.
Apr 06 1972 – Vietnam: Easter Offensive – American forces begin sustained air strikes and naval
bombardments.
Apr 07 1712 – Tuscarora War: Col. John Barnwell, commanding a combined white militia and
friendly Indian force numbering about 300 men, again besieges this main encampment of the
hostile Tuscarora Indians. The Tuscarora had launched a surprise attack in September 1711,
killing about 130 colonists, prompting North Carolina to ask Virginia and South Carolina for
help. Barnwell's army was composed mostly of South Carolina militia. He had besieged the
hostiles’ fort in March, but agreed to a truce after the Indians began torturing their captives within
earshot of the militia. When the Tuscarora failed to honor part of their agreement, Barnwell
maintained the siege for 10 days, finally forcing the Indians to surrender. All captives were freed
and other conditions were met bringing the Tuscarora War to a close.
Apr 07 1862 – Civil War: Battle of Shiloh ends – the Union Army under General Ulysses S.
Grant defeats the Confederates near Shiloh, Tennessee.
Apr 07 1943 – WW2: Holocaust: In Terebovlia, Ukraine, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress to
their underwear and march through the city of Terebovlia to the nearby village of Plebanivka.
There they are shot dead
Apr 07 1945 – WW2: The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is
sunk 200 miles north of Okinawa while en–route to a suicide mission in Operation Ten–Go.
Apr 07 2003 – Gulf War: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days
later.
Apr 08 1864 - Civil War: Battle of Mansfield - Union forces are thwarted by the Confederate
army at Mansfield, Louisiana. Casualties and losses: US 2,117 - CSA 1,000.
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Apr 08 1942 – WW2: The Japanese take Bataan in the Philippines
Apr 09 1782 – Revolutionary War: 4 day Battle of the Saintes begins. Casualties and losses: Brit
1,059 - FR 8,000 Est.
Apr 09 1865 – Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765
troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
Apr 09 1916 – WWI: The Battle of Verdun – German forces launch their third offensive of the
battle.
Apr 09 1942 – WW2: The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March – United States forces surrender
on the Bataan Peninsula
Apr 09 1945 – WW2: USS Snook (SS–279) missing. Most likely sunk by a combination of
Japanese naval aircraft in the Nansei Soto. 84 killed.
Apr 09 1981 – The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS George Washington (SSBN–598)
accidentally collides with the Nissho Maru, a Japanese cargo ship, sinking it.
Apr 09 2003 – Iraq Invasion: Baghdad falls to American forces; Saddam Hussein statue topples
as Iraqis turn on symbols of their former leader, pulling down the statue and tearing it to pieces.
Apr 10 1942 – WW2: Bataan Peninsula, Luzon, Philippines – After more than three months of
determined resistance, American and Filipino forces are compelled by hunger, disease and lack of
supplies to surrender to the Japanese army. Among these units are the survivors of two Guard
tank battalions, the 192nd from Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin, and the 194th from
Minnesota and Missouri, as well as the 200th Coast Artillery (Anti–Aircraft) from New Mexico.
These men were subjected to the Bataan Death March with the survivors spending the next three
years in captivity.
Apr 10 1963 – USS Thresher (SSN–593) sank after a possible piping failure during deep
submergence tests off New England coast. 129 died
Apr 10 1972 – Vietnam: For the first time since NOV 67, American B–52 bombers reportedly
begin bombing North Vietnam.
Apr 11 1945 – WW2: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.
German civilians are forced by American troops to bear witness to Nazi atrocities at Buchenwald
concentration camp, mere miles from their own homes, April 1945.
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Apr 11 1951 – Korea: President Harry Truman relieves General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
of overall command in Korea.
Apr 12 1861 – Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the
harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
Apr 12 1862 – Civil War: The Andrews Raid (the Great Locomotive Chase) occurred, starting
from Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw). Some of Andrews' raiders were the first to be
awarded the Medal of Honor by the US Congress for their actions
Apr 12 1864 – Civil War: Battle (Massacre) of Fort Pillow: Confederate forces kill the majority
of the African American soldiers and many of the white soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow,
Tennessee. Casualties and losses: US 574 - CSA 100.
1885 color poster of the "Fort Pillow Massacre".
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Apr 12 1865 – Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.
Apr 13 1776 – Revolutionary War: American forces are surprised in the Battle of Bound Brook,
New Jersey. During the battle, most of the 500–man garrison escaped. Casualties and losses: US
40 to 120 - GB 7.
Apr 13 1861 – Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces. Casualties and losses:
US 2 - CSA 0
Apr 13 1972 – Vietnam: The Battle of An Loc begins
Apr 14 1918 – WWI: Douglas Campbell is 1st US ace pilot (shooting down 5th German plane)
Apr 14 1945 – WW2: US 7th Army & allies forces captured Nuremberg & Stuttgart in Germany
Apr 15 1900 – Philippine-American War: Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on U.S.
infantry and begin a four-day siege of Catubig, Philippines.
Apr 15 1952 – The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress
[Source: Various Mar 2014 ++]
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